On the conditions and means of knowledge transfer in interdisciplinary research

Abstract

The first part of this article discusses the methodology for studying the conditions and means of knowledge transfer in interdisciplinary research. It is based on a combination of methodology fromhistorical, socio-cultural and scientific research applied to the study of the conditions of interdisciplinary communication, with a methodological approach characteristic of the philosophy and epistemology of science, focusing on studying means of transfer. It is suggested that conceptual metaphors, or semantic transfers between conceptual domains, which are studied in cognitive linguistics, be considered as such tools. The article analyzes their role in interdisciplinary transfer using the author’s parallel dictionary methodology. The second part of the article shows the application of this approach to studying specific interdisciplinary knowledge transfer based on the examples of a number of relevant and developing interdisciplinary areas. Three examples were specifically examined: the transfer of knowledge between evolutionary biology and evolutionary computation; between evolutionary biology and evolutionary political science and biological science and semiotics.